Step By Step Keto Diet Plan!

In recent media, low carbohydrate diets have been THE fad for almost everybody in America wanting to lose weight. From your secretaries, elementary school teachers, and desk clerks, to bodybuilders, models, actresses, and athletes.

However, there is a huge difference between those who follow an Atkins plan and those who follow a cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD). Atkins is a low carb plan for those who are quite sedentary, walk maybe 3 times a week at the most, and just follow normal everyday activities. So forget Atkins here. The CKD is for those who’s main concern is true fat loss and muscle preservation—muscle for sports and high intensity activities.

My opinion for those who practice Atkins is that while they do lose fat, there is much water loss and most importantly muscle loss. Something we athletes do not want. A CKD is a true fat loss diet that works undeniably, if followed properly and strictly. Yes, low carb diets can be hell at first, but after two to three weeks, there have been anecdotal reports from many dieters that the cravings for carbohydrates decrease. This route to fat burning is unlike any traditional diet all the low-fat diet authors and FDA people have been advocating in history.

I got turned onto this diet a few years back when I got tired of cutting fat and still not being able to lose those last percentage points of bodyfat without losing hard earned muscle. I would start a low-fat diet, and be a either a social misfit (not going out with my friends to party or not going out to eat). Or in the worse case, feel so deprived of delicious junk foods I missed and bail out on the diet all together. One advantage to this diet is that there is no true restrictions on food. One may eat anything labeled a "food"! Well, almost. I’ll explain later.

How the diet works.

The science behind the CKD is simple. Carbohydrates in the diet cause an insulin (a "storage" hormone) output in the pancreas. It is used to store glycogen, amino acids into muscles, while causing excess calories to be stored as fat. So common sense asks me, "How can one try to break down fat, when your body is in a storage-type mode?" Difficult to do, indeed. That is why it makes perfect sense for step one to be cutting carbs.

The next thing that happens in your body is the rise in catecholamines (a "fat mobilizing" hormone), cortisol (a "breakdown" hormone), and growth hormone. Now your body realizes there’s no more carbs to burn for energy, so it must find another energy source: fat.

This usually happens during a metabolic condition called "ketosis." This is when your liver is out of glycogen and starts to produce ketones (by-products of fatty acids). You can check your status of whether or not you are in ketosis with urinalysis strips you can pick up at any local drug store called "Ketostix." Just urinate and see if it turns color. If so, you have ketones in the urine.

When the body is fed fat and protein, it will use dietary fat along with bodyfat for energy with protein going towards repair.

As a side note, there is another reason why this diet makes the most sense to use while keeping muscle. When one follows a high carbohydrate, low-fat, reduced-calorie diet, there’s a point when some bodyfat is burned, but when the body is still in a carbohydrate burning metabolism while trying to lose "weight," it will strip down precious body protein to convert to glucose for energy.

On the other hand, during fat metabolism, protein cannot be converted into free-fatty acids for energy. Although there is no scientific research done on this, there have been reports from followers that there truly is a "protein-sparing" effect. It makes sense doesn’t it? Where else would the body look for fat energy when all dietary fat is burned? Bodyfat.

Diet Requirements Mon. to Fri.

The phrase "working smarter, not harder" applies here more than any diet one has tried. One must fully understand what they must do in order to optimize their goal. To set a CKD up, one cannot just expect to cut all carbs in the diet, train hard, and lose fat! Although some have come up with variations to this plan, the one stated in this article, I have found, has worked for myself (it got me to 6% BF), and other clients I’ve trained to the leanest, hardest they’ve ever been.

First, to set up the diet, write down your lean mass weight. Not your total weight, dough boy. If you weigh 200, but have 20% bodyfat, your lean mass weight would be around 160 pounds. Multiply this by one, getting your grams of protein requirements for a day. Make sure you eat at least one gram of protein/pound of lean mass! This is important in recovery from workouts and enough nitrogen retention to keep muscle. Next, multiply by four, to get your protein calories. Here, it is 640.

The rest of your caloric requirements for the day should be fat. Here is the catch: you must eat fat to burn fat. There’s no way around it. There are many advantages to dietary fat on this diet: Feeling of fullness since fat digestion is slow (less hunger), tastes great, and lowers blood glucose levels (lowering insulin and allow all the fat burning hormones to do their job).

So how much fat? I always recommend starting out with a 500 calorie deficit from your maintenance calories. If you don’t know, it is usually 15 times body weight (full body weight here) depending on an individuals metabolic rate. So here, the example would need 3000 calories a day to maintain weight, and 2500 calories to begin fat loss.

2500 minus 640 (protein calories) is 1860 which works out to be around 206 fat grams a day. Now as you go deeper into the diet, and find the need to restrict calories more, you must cut fat calories, not protein.

The Weekend Carb Load

Since muscle glycogen is the main source of energy for anaerobic exercise such as weight training, we cannot simply deplete all stores while working out and not fill them back up. If that does happen, be rest-assured that the body WILL use protein for fuel then. But this won’t happen on the CKD.

Your one and a half days of "freedom" allow you to do two things: First, reward your carb cravings from the previous days, allowing you to enjoy pleasures like pizza, pasta, breads, etc. Second, eating these things are physiologically rewarding as insulin levels run high, storing amino acids and carbs, as glycogen, into the depleted muscle allowing you to be able to workout again the following week.

Your "carb-up" should begin Friday night and last until around midnight Saturday. Now the next important issue to address is how many carbs. Some lucky individuals find that they eat whatever they want for the 24-30 hour time interval and receive perfect glycogen compensation, while others rely on a better statistical number.

What has been recommended by other authors of the CKD is 10-12 grams of carbs per kilogram of lean mass. Again, time to do math. Our example had 160 pounds of lean mass, so divide that by the conversion factor of 2.2, and we get roughly 73 kg.

100 Grams of easily digested liquid carbs along with around half as many grams of carbs in protein (here 50) as a whey shake or something of that nature should be taken right after the last workout (which I will address in the workout section of the article) when insulin sensitivity will be at its greatest.

A few hours later this individual will start to spread the remaining 630 grams of carbs, along with the important number of 160 grams of protein (remember, keep this constant) during the remainder of the compensation period.

So what about dietary fat? I know you’re reminding yourself, "Didn’t this guy mention pizza?" Yes, I did. And here’s why. During the first 24-30 hours of carbing up, the body will use all dietary carbohydrates to refill glycogen, protein for rebuilding, and get this: fat for energy. Still?

Just like the previous five and a half days. Makes sense. When all the carbohydrates are being used for more important functions (muscle), what else is there to be used? However, you can’t just eat all the fat you want. Keep grams of fat intake below your body weight in kilograms. Again, here our example will keep is fat below 73 during the carb-fest.

By anecdotal reports, this should keep fat regain minimal to nil. Keeping fat intake extremely low has even caused some extra fat burning during the carb up!

As stated before, some dietary fat should be eaten to slow digestion and keep sugar levels stable. Whether it be saturated, unsaturated, or essential fats, is the dieter’s decision. All have nine calories per gram. (Note: there is a claim that essential fatty acids such as flax seed oil increase insulin sensitivity within the muscle cells, in turn, increasing glycogen intake.)

In Case You Missed It

So here’s how it breaks down during the week: Sunday through Friday afternoon , you will follow the low carb diet outlined above. Eat fat and protein all day everyday except on workout days because after workouts, you will need to consume strictly just protein—no fat or carbs.

Some have found to enjoy a protein shake afterwards because they are easily digested. Do whatever works for you. But fat is not logical since you want the protein to fuel the healing process as quickly as possible and fat will only slow it down.

Friday afternoon, around two hours before your last workout of the week, eat two to three pieces of fruit. This will get your body/liver ready to start the carb loading and give you some energy for that final, dreadful workout (trust me, during the first few weeks, you will not want to do that final workout, but you must). Then from Friday night until Saturday at midnight or until bed, eat those carbs!

Now, the question is, how do we workout to optimize muscle preservation and keep our metabolism up while dieting? Before we get into that, one must realize that during any dieting scheme there is one thing that must be done, and one thing that must not be done.

First, you must keep training volume lower than your usual routine. Overtraining is probably the number one killer in motivation, it deprives sleep, and hinders fat loss.

Second, you must not fall into the myth of lighter weights with higher reps. You got your muscle by benching 240, and you have to bench 240 to keep that same muscle! Or at least around that area! Okay, now that we have that established, here’s what we do:

On Monday and Tuesday we will work our weaker body parts, rest or cardio on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, Thursday do our strongest body parts, and Friday a combination of the Monday/Tuesday workouts in a loop format. The workout I have found to work optimally for myself and my clients is this:

(Note: You may feel free to tweak, shake, and turn this example upside down.

Everybody is different, so find what works for you.)

MONDAY: Chest, Back, Abs

High intensity workouts with 60 sec rest between sets, 90 sec rest between

each exercise

(this excludes all warm up sets)

Bench 3 sets, 6-10 reps

T-bar Row 3 sets, 6-10 reps

Incline bench 3 sets, 6-10 reps

Latpulldown to front 3 sets, 6-10 reps

Dips or Decline bench 3 sets, 6-10 reps

Shrugs 3 sets, 6-10 reps

Flys (any type) 2 sets, 10-12 reps

Reverse flys 2 sets, 10-12 reps

Stiff-leg deadlift 3 sets, 10-12 reps

Rope ab crunch 3 sets, 10-15 reps

Reverse crunch 3 sets, 10-20 reps

TUESDAY: Shoulders, Arms

Same intensity mentioned before

Behind the neck shoulder press 3 sets, 8-10 reps

Military press 3 sets, 8-10 reps

Preacher curls 3 sets, 8-10 reps

French press or "skull-crushers" 3 sets, 8-10 reps

Shoulder raises (any type) 2 sets, 8-10 reps

Hammers 3 sets, 8-10 reps

V-bar tricep press 3 sets, 8-10 reps

Forearm curls 2 sets, 8-10 reps

Reverse forearm curls 2 sets, 8-10 reps

Wednesday: Rest or Cardio

Thursday morning: Rest or Cardio

Later on Thursday: Legs

Same intensity mentioned before

Squat or Leg press 4 sets, 6-10 reps

Lying leg curl 4 sets, 6-10 reps

Standing calf raise 4 sets 6-10 reps

Leg extensions 4 sets, 10-12 reps

Seated leg curl 4 sets, 10-12 reps

Seated calf raise 4 sets, 10-12 reps

Friday night: Final Workout

Same intensity mentioned before

Bench 2 sets, 6-10 reps

T-bar Row 2 sets, 6-10 reps

Incline bench 2 sets, 6-10 reps

Latpulldown to front 2 sets, 6-10 reps

Behind the neck shoulder press 1 set, 8-10 reps

Military press 1 set, 8-10 reps

Either curl exercise 2 sets, 8-10 reps

Either tricep exercise 2 sets, 8-10 reps

Stiffleg deadift 1 set, 8-10 reps

Normal floor ab crunch 2 sets, 10-20 reps

Reverse crunches 2 sets, 10-20 reps

Start the carb up for 24-30 hours!

Aerobics

Before we go on, I want to address the cardio/aerobics issue. Some people find that for the first month on a CKD, cardio/aerobics is not needed. However when fat loss does start to slow down a bit, that is when most start adding 30 min. sessions on their off days. Be careful though, you do not want to hinder your Thursday leg workout. So experiment and try to only add aerobic sessions if you feel you have to.

Supplements

So we have the basic diet outline stated, the workout, now what about supplements? Things that can extremely optimize this diet regime. Well, I have to admit no allegiance to any supplement company on this one: Water. Water is important on any diet, especially low carb since there is a diuretic effect, and more importantly during the carbing period. Glycogen is stored with water! You need as much water as possible to hydrate the depleted muscle. Trust me, you will feel a huge "pump" on Sunday morning from all the stored carbs and water INSIDE your muscle.

Speaking of muscle, the god of all sports supplement right now: Creatine. It can still be used on a low carb diet. Usually 10 grams a day during the low carb days, and around 20-30 grams during the carbing period should work for most everybody. I highly recommend it for everybody who doesn’t get an upset stomach using it.

Finally, one that everyone that’s dieted before knows about: The ECA stack. Most have not used pure ECA, but mainly herbal extracts in thermogenic products sold by sports supplement companies. For a pre-work out boost and increased fat burning through thermogenics (heat), this is my favorite supplement. It does its job, you feel it happening, and it can help you psychologically when you don’t feel like working out that day.

Conclusion

With all this said, I will throw my personal opinion, thanks and motivation on or for the cyclical ketogenic diet. First of all, to me, it is the greatest diet every developed. It makes sense, works and isn’t as hard to follow as one might think. Just stay motivated and concentrate on your goal.

When you have a craving during the week for that cupcake or pasta, just go eat a delicious serving of some pepperoni and melted mozzarella cheese. Or how about a hamburger patty covered in cheddar cheese and some strips of bacon? Foods that are delicious and that can satiate hunger.

I followed this exact plan this past summer for eight weeks and loss 18 pounds of fat without any loss in muscle. It was the leanest and most vascular I had ever seen myself.

And I must give thanks where thanks are due since I did not come up with this diet. Dan Duchaine, who recently passed away, brought my attention to a CKD with his book BodyOpus and Lyle McDonald has done deep research and wrote his book The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner.

This diet can be for you. Oh you’re only a mass builder? Well, lower bodyfat percentages even make you look bigger! Give it some thought and decide. Then achieve your goal. It’s worth it: A diet with true fat loss.

Originally posted by Gmonkey Blindfaith thanks for the info.&nbsp; I appreciate this concise representation of ckd.&nbsp;

Blindfaith I was curious about the 30 grams of post workout carbs that is recommended by FitnessMan on bb.&nbsp; I noticed that you did not say to take this.&nbsp;

The eca stack, I was going to include.&nbsp;

You mention weakest body part, do you mean what looks the weakest or is physically the weakest.&nbsp;

I was also going to include 7-keto on this.

Would you&nbsp;consider SU(usinic acid)&nbsp;on this diet I have tried it before and had no adverse side-effects.&nbsp;

Do you know of discussion or have an opinion of doing 1-test while on this diet?

I cant answer all of your questions but i'll answer the ones that i know...me and fitnessman&nbsp;have had the debate on the postworkout shake...now the ckd is 30 grams of carbs or below....the&nbsp;shake that he&nbsp;says to do contains 30 grams of carbs...that doesnt leave any&nbsp;room for those hidden carbs that we eat during the day....the thing is im&nbsp;sure that it works for some individuals but the thing is my body is SUPER carb sensitive so i stay way under the 30 grams a day just as a precaution. Try one week doing the&nbsp;postworkout shakes and one week without and see&nbsp;what happens.

I will personally never&nbsp;take an eca stack again just because it really affects my energy levels....it gets me really high then really really&nbsp;low...and it gives me ****ty&nbsp;sleeps. But if you can handle it than giver ****! I&nbsp;use caffine tabs, yohimbee hcl tabs, lipoderm-y,&nbsp;biotests t2 original formula, zma, and liver tabs.

As for&nbsp;the week body part business...i mean the most physically weekest part. And i have done UA on 2 occassions...both being on a ketogenic diet. I lost about 10lbs in 14 days my first time...and my second time about 6lbs. So definetly throw some ua into the mix...but be warned that there are some&nbsp;"potenially" bad sides to&nbsp;UA.

And for the 7-keto and 1-test i have no clue...ive never done a&nbsp;prohormone and ive dont know jack about 7-keto.

as far as glutamine, in any diet or workout plan (more so in cutting of course), i think taking 5g during a workout really is beneficial. and 5g post, along with 5g before bed or after you wake up (i do the latter cuz i get enought l-glut from my nightime eating. some take bcaa's during workout and that great too

I too appreciate the detailed explanation of the Keto diet; plan to use it post cycle to cut.&nbsp; Kudos to all the bros that take the time to offer good solid advice.&nbsp; Thanks to BDC and Curt2go for all the work they've done so far.

11-05-2002, 11:58 AM

FishBonz

Excellent post Blindfaith….This is the kind of info that makes this board awesome.

I wanted to mention another form of the ketogenic diet that I do. It’s called the Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD). The TKD might be considered a middle of the road approach between a Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD) and the Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD). Instead of incorporating the longer carb-up period of the CKD, the TKD incorporates carbohydrate consumption either before or after (I carb up after) the workout, with the rest of the day being strictly “keto”, or no carbs.
The TKD offers carb consumption right after the workout to help sustain performance and improve recovery.

I tried the CKD but was left with very little energy during workouts. The TKD did the trick by getting the needed carbs right after the workout, allowing me to continue working very hard in the gym.
I know guys who have done the CKD and it works wonders.
On off days, when I just do cardio, I go totally “keto” (no carbs) and then back to the TKD on workout days. It has worked very well for me.

I obviously did not put as much info on this subject as Blindfaith, but I just wanted to add to the discussion.

Targeted Ketogenic Diet.&nbsp; It is essentially a ketogenic diet where carbohydrate intake is timed around weight training workouts. The goal is to provide enough short term energy to exercise effectively without disrupting&nbsp; ketosis.&nbsp; The amount of carbs to be consumed is determined by the number of sets to be performed.&nbsp; Lyle McDonald has suggested&nbsp; 5 grams for every two sets to be performed as a guideline. A person planning for 10 sets would consume 25 grams preworkout using these guidelines.&nbsp;&nbsp; Most TKD followers use abbreviated weight training routines: i.e., HIT /Hardgainer, where only one or two sets of an exercise are performed.&nbsp; An extensive listing of sample abbreviated routines can be found at: http://www.cyberpump.com/workouts/workpage.html .&nbsp; Carbohydrates are generally consumed 30 minutes prior to workout. Others have found sucess with carb intake during their workout.&nbsp; Some TKDers also take in&nbsp; post-workout carbs, generally with some protein to aid in recovery.&nbsp; Fat intake should be avoided when taking in whatever source of carbs is chosen.&nbsp; Experimentation with the amount and timing of carbohydrate consumption will generally be necessary to get the results desired.

Glucose /Glucose polymers are often used as preworkout carbs. "Smarties" (U.S. version only) and "Sweettarts" are popular pre-workout carbs, but anything that is easily digestable and will give the desired amount of carbs is fine. [HC]

&nbsp;

now IMO...ckd is way better and more effective but its all about the individual...try both see which one works best for you and your needs. That is the only way you are going to see what is the best!

Good keto information, I agree with the majority of what was written. I worked on a ketogenic FAQ with Chi_town from the bb.com board, but we never quite finished it. I should contact him so we can finish this sucker off..

Seriously these diets work very well. I actually do a modified version of both TKD and CKD. This is just from trial and error and figuring out what my body responds too more effectively. I do something similar to Fishbonz plan. They are very easy once you get the hang of it and truthfully very adpatable to whatever cycle (bulking/cutting) your doing at the moment. TKD works especially well in conjuction with ALA/R-LA.

Originally posted by Gmonkey Blindfaith thanks for the info.&nbsp; I appreciate this concise representation of ckd.&nbsp;

Blindfaith I was curious about the 30 grams of post workout carbs that is recommended by FitnessMan on bb.&nbsp; I noticed that you did not say to take this.&nbsp;

The eca stack, I was going to include.&nbsp;

You mention weakest body part, do you mean what looks the weakest or is physically the weakest.&nbsp;

I was also going to include 7-keto on this.

Would you&nbsp;consider SU(usinic acid)&nbsp;on this diet I have tried it before and had no adverse side-effects.&nbsp;

Do you know of discussion or have an opinion of doing 1-test while on this diet?

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

I personally think the 30g post workout is crucial but others disagree. Used with ALA you will rarely ever leave ketosis. As for UA, if you do it, definetly add some sort or eca or stimulant as the lethargy can be a problem. Using 1-test is a good idea and if you follow the diet very closely and remain disciplined, you will add LBM with a good dose of 1-Test. The refeed is the most crucial part of the equation for this. For the most part Blindfaith's post is great and you will see different people follow different rules pertaining when too utilize carbs just from their personal experience. BF says he is very carb sensisitive and I understand this fully as I am also. ALA has helped in this especially while on a keto diet.

Good old ala. ****ing good thread here, nice posts Blindfaith... though if everything else is in order I don't see why you wouldn't want post train carbs? Seems like a crucial thing to me, as long as you are able to stay in keto, you'd better get that **** in there after workout no?

AVOID SUGAR:
Instead, use artificial sweetners such as sucralose or saccharin.

AVOID THE FOLLOWING:
Fruit, Bread, Pasta, Grains, Starchy vegetables or Dairy products other than cheese, cream or butter. Do not eat Margarine or any other foods with hydrogenated oils (trans-fats).

Do not eat nuts or seeds in large amounts, as they often have too much carbohydrates. Foods that combine protein and carbohydrates, such as chickpeas, kidney beans and other legumes, are not permitted.

AVOID "LOW-FAT":
Foods that claim to be "reduced-calorie" or "low-fat" are often packed with sugar. Avoid them at all costs.

AVOID CAFFEINE:
Excessive caffeine has been shown to cause low blood sugar, which can make you crave sugar.

Some people say that ketogenic and high intensity exercise do not go well together simply because you don't have enough glucose to sustain your body's requirement. I however, have done some pretty intense running, b-ball playing, etc and I felt fine.

It can be done by diabetics but you have to be really on top of your blood testing and insulin amounts. You will not need to inject nearly the same amount as before. I would probably go for a 40-30-30 if you are diabetic, but I would love to see someone do this and post their results.

Periodically while using keto diets, we incorporate refeeds or cheat days to flip flop the diet and promote further fat loss. Essentially you eat carbohydrates that day, limit your fat intake, and consume the same amount of protein...

I personally like to take my refeed after my Friday workout. I have my post workout shake and then start with the carb meal friday evening. I run this until Saturday evening. Then go back to strict keto Sunday morning. That is just me though. Everyone has their own method that works for them.

Originally posted by LakeMountD yeah all it is, is meat, eggs, cheese, and oil.. a few veggies bu tnothing that would fill you up.. i dont understand how you could get your calories up on this or hell fill yourself up..

also you say dont eat bacon, then towards the bottom you say you can eat it..

"Processed meats, such as ham, bacon, pepperoni, salami, hot dogs and other luncheon meats may have added sugar and will contribute carbs. Try to avoid meat and fish products cured with nitrates"

Simple, depending on the brand and kind, some meats do contain carbs in accordance with how they are cured...oscar meyer hot dogs do have relatively high carbs for example. avoid those kinds of meats obviously, but simply be aware of what you're buying and you'll be fine, there are many many possibilities... not that complicated is it? also, eat as many veggies as you should, and they WILL fill you up believe me... the fat is also so calorically dense that less food volume will 'fill you up' more